# Transaction Fees

## Why do I need to pay fees for transactions?

Transaction fees for blockchain transactions are analogous to bank fees for bank transactions. All open, public blockchains will have one thing in common, a user will pay a fee in order to send a transaction. The main reason for is to give some incentive to the actors who add transactions to the blockchain. These actors are known as Validators, who operates a blockchain node of VeChainThor.

## How do transaction fees differ to banking fees?

There are several ways that blockchain fees differ to the fees traditional banking institutions charge for payments:

**Fee Calculation:** In blockchain networks, transaction fees are generally calculated based on the size of the transaction (in bytes), the type of transaction, the network congestion and the priority of the transaction. Whereas, traditional banking fees vary depending on the specific banking institution, the account type and what services were rendered by the bank to complete the transaction.

**Transparency:** Blockchain transaction fees are transparent and publicly visible on the blockchain. Users can check the current fee rates and observe the fees paid for specific transactions using blockchain explorers or wallets. This is not generally the case for banking transaction fees. Traditional banking fees are often not explicitly disclosed or transparent.

**Cross-Border Transactions:** Blockchain networks, by design, can facilitate cross-border transactions cheaper and faster than traditional banking institutions. The geographical location of the receiver is not taken into account during the calculation of the transactions fees. This is not the case for traditional banking fees, as cross-border payments require correspondent banking relationships, currency exchange fees, and wire transfer charges, all of which are passed to the customer in the form of transaction fees.

## What is fee delegation?

On the VeChainThor blockchain, a user is able to delegate the payment of the transaction fee to a separate entity. This powerful feature sets VeChain apart from other blockchains as a truly enterprise focused blockchain ecosystem. Removing the need to pay for a fee significantly reduces the barriers to entry for a user to use decentralized applications (dApps) that are built on the VeChainThor blockchain.

{% hint style="info" %}
Want to learn more about how fee delegation works under the hood, skip to the [Fee Delegation](/core-concepts/transactions/meta-transaction-features/fee-delegation.md) section.
{% endhint %}


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.vechain.org/core-concepts/transactions/transaction-fees.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.